The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has said it is committed to thoroughly investigating credible reports, following recent public discussions and concerns raised regarding alleged incidents of child sexual abuse/misconduct in daycare settings in Nigeria.

The discussions arose after old social media posts by popular singer Simi surfaced, with netizens accusing her of pedophilia.

The posts surfaced after Simi made a strong case against rape, following a TikTokker’s claim of being raped, an allegation later found to be false.

Netizens then urged Simi to call out false rape accusers with the same energy she used to slam rapists after the TikTokker’s false alarm.

Not pleased by her response, the netizens began unearthing her old posts on X, dating as far back as 2013, in which they claim she sexualised toddlers in her mother’s daycare.

In response, the singer wrote on X, “In 2012, I lived and helped out at my mom’s daycare while I was hustling my music. I tweeted everything that happened in my life, as we all did at the time. Kids can be mischievous. If a child did something I found funny, I tweeted about it. Kids are cute and lovable. I want to hug, kiss and cuddle them. I tweet about it. Nothing I tweeted was from perversion.

“I was not famous, so maybe if I was, I would have understood that anything is open to whatever interpretation, including being used falsely by a faceless mob. I’ve never been depraved in my life. You can retweet all the tweets in the world about me loudly crushing on people I admired. Or being a cheeky young woman. I wasn’t trying to hide it, because I don’t have anything to hide.”

Despite her rebuttal, many still urged authorities to investigate the singer and her mother’s daycare, believing more could be unearthed.

In an apparent response, NAPTIP wrote in a terse statement, “We kindly request anyone with factual information, evidence, direct knowledge, or who was personally affected by the matters referenced in the viral posts or related experiences to kindly reach out to us confidentially. Via DM or email us [email protected].”